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A close family friend is setting up a website for his Stonemason business and I offered to take some photos for him. I have not had many chances this year to take any non happy snaps this year hence minimal posts. I realise i have 5 pics because it was hard to narrow it down. Gary If it's an issue PM me and I will delete one.

All other photos are here http://www.accessaudits.com.au/DSLR/web/

They were all shot with my Tokina 12-24







Thanks for looking
Bruce

Other than the great big hotspots in the first two images, I think you have done well to capture the stone work.

aim54x wrote:Other than the great big hotspots in the first two images, I think you have done well to capture the stone work.

Thank You.

Between hotspots & heavy shadows it was a bit difficult. 35 degree day with no clouds - not ideal. I ended up using a flash on the second to counter some of the shadow. We only had a day to do it so what we got on site was what we had to work with.

How about the night?

These are perfect for lightpainting. I think you can cut out distractions and do a great job highlighting the craftmanship.

I would lightpaint with a hardlight at an angle first and then try a softer source to see whether it could further improve things.

surenj wrote:How about the night?

Nah, doing it as a favour and we did 12 locations in one day. That would equate to many nights away from the family. Plus I would ahve no idea how do produce a decent result.

I think given the day and conditions you have done well, it would be hard to get good images with that harsh sun!

Whilst you do not have the opportunity for other times in the day I reckon the 3rd and 4th images would look great at sunset with the house and yard lights on!

If you have the 1st and 2nd image in raw I reckon a puesdo HDR treatment might look quite good. If you post up a file i would happily have a crack..

Plus I would ahve no idea how do produce a decent result.

I think A tripod and fairly long shutter with the house / BBQ area lights on would do the trick...

At the end of the day you need to convey the stone work to the viewer and for someone looking for a potential tradesman to do this I think you need images concentrating more on the actual work than fancy effects - that said, fancy effects would not hurt

Wonderful craftmanship in the stonework and you have done well with the photos too given the harsh lighting you have contended with. The white van in #2 has to go though!

biggerry wrote:If you have the 1st and 2nd image in raw I reckon a puesdo HDR treatment might look quite good. If you post up a file i would happily have a crack.

Sure Its http://www.accessaudits.com.au/dslr/Stone.zip

Cheers
Bruce

alright, one o fthe images in the zip file was different to the original posted items, but hey, i had a bash at that anyway

Whilst this may not look substantially better I think it addresses the hotspots in the image and gives a more even light over the frame...anyway hth.




and the other one...



I must say too, it spun me out when I looked at the original posted images and they are named 'Gerry4', 'Gerry5' etc...

Based on the images you posted I'd hire this guy to do my stone work. I guess that's the bottom line?

biggerry wrote:alright, one of the images in the zip file was different to the original posted items, but hey, i had a bash at that anyway

Whilst this may not look substantially better I think it addresses the hotspots in the image and gives a more even light over the frame...anyway hth.

I must say too, it spun me out when I looked at the original posted images and they are named 'Gerry4', 'Gerry5' etc...

Gerry
Personally I think it makes a significant difference. Would you care to explain how you went about it for me please?

Thank You again
Bruce

Would you care to explain how you went about it for me please?

all I did was use Photomatix 3 and made a pseudo HDR from the single raw file, I basically just played with the strength and light smoothing sliders until i got a semi natural looking result. In the past I find you can get pretty close to the same effect adjusting the levels and curves on a raw file in Capture NX, this however does not help you since you use canon though.

here is a screen capture of the Photmatix options, click for larger



I then adjusted contrast and alignment in Capture NX.

I hope this helps questions comments queries...

biggerry wrote:
I hope this helps questions comments queries...

Thank you again for your assistance. This is an area I need to spend a bit more time on I can see. This has been a great start.

Thank you again.
Bruce